Enhancing the quality factor of aerosol jet printed RF spiral inductors through gold electroplating

Abstract Aerosol jet printing outperforms inkjet printing by significantly reducing printed line width, effectively addressing issues such as bulging and surface irregularities. This technology allows for line widths as narrow as 10 to 100 µm with high aspect ratios, making it well-suited for RF (radio frequency) applications. Consequently, it emerges as a valuable tool for direct printing in RF applications. Among conductive inks, silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) ink is preferred for its straightforward direct printing process and lower sintering temperature requirements. However, the conductivity of printed Ag NP traces falls markedly below that of bulk silver due to significant porosity, limiting its use in RF applications where a high-quality factor is essential. The quality factor of an inductor, indicative of its efficiency in energy storage and release, inversely correlates with its resistance. Our research combines aerosol jet printing with selective electroplating to reduce the resistance of printed traces, thereby enhancing the inductor's quality factor for RF applications. We fabricated spiral inductors on alumina substrates using silver NP ink and subsequently applied selective gold electroplating to these traces. This approach led to a significant increase in the inductors' quality factor, improving it by a factor of 3 to 5 in the RF frequency range of 100 to 700 MHz.